Mariel Williams
editor@mitchellnews.com
The 65th annual NC Mineral & Gem Festival begins Thursday, and the parallel Grassy Creek Mineral & Gem Show is halfway through its weeklong run.
The festival, an indoor event showcasing gems and jewelry from all over, will be held from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and will finish up with shorter hours Sunday, from 12:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. It will be held the Commons Shopping Center (former Food Lion Building), 12183 NC-226 in Spruce Pine.
The Grassy Creek show is being held at 136 Majestic View from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, ending on Sunday. Austin Akers of The Vault Fine Gems & Jewelry said he has been coming to Grassy Creek for many years, as a dealer since 2018.
“It is an amazing show — in fact I got my best rock here maybe seven or eight years ago,” Akers said. “There’s a huge variety of dealers.”
Akers said that although the weather can sometimes be treacherous, coming to the Grassy Creek event is always “an awesome time.”
“I’ve just seen the scene start to grow more and more every year,” he said. “Minerals is one of those things where, you get into serious collecting it’s like you’re throwing your intuition into a piece — there’s nothing so pure as selling a rock.”
The NC festival is organized by the Mitchell County Chamber of Commerce. Mandi Polly, executive director of the chamber, said the event will have a wide variety of jewelry and other related items for purchase.
“We have everything — it’s not just jewelry,” Polly said. “We have a guy that does wood carvings, we’ve got a guy that makes lamps out of … minerals.”
Mine tours are also available at The Quartz Corp facility. Polly said there are a limited number of tour tickets available.
“They usually sell out,” she said. “It’s the only time of year that people can go in that mine.”
Roger Frye, co-chairman of the Grassy Creek show, said the two events balance each other well because one is indoors and the other is outdoors.
“Some people like to do indoor shows, and some people like to do outdoor shows,” Frye said.
Polly said there will be vendors at the NC festival selling affordable jewelry as well as some specializing in more high-end options. One vendor will be offering custom knives.
“This year we have somebody that makes permanent jewelry,” Polly said. “They kind of solder it on your arm and there’s no hook on it.”
There will be vintage estate jewelry available, and interesting rock and mineral specimens.
“This year we’ve got a guy that’s bringing meteorites,” Polly said.
In addition to the many restaurant options available in Spruce Pine, there will be food trucks at the festival.
Polly said the festival attracts visitors from all over the world, and many of those end up attending other events, such as the Grassy Creek show or the Mount Mitchell Crafts Fair in Burnsville.
“It’s a big boost to the local economy,” she said.
Akers, who specializes in South African rhodochrosite, said he started getting into rare minerals and rocks as a collector before becoming a dealer. He said he enjoys the process of looking at different stones and trying to decide what makes a good investment.
“You get like a tremendous rush out of being able to trust your intuition and turn it into something that you can either further the company on or further your life on,” he said. “It’s really like a passion project … being able to have an eye for aesthetics and being able to know like what a good version of this mineral specie looks like and is.”
Polly said the chamber is grateful to the volunteers and local businesses that have helped prepare for the NC festival, and to the festival’s sponsors, including Sibelco, The Quartz Corp and Mayland Community College. Great Meadows Inc. contributed the space for the event in the old Food Lion building on State Hwy. 226.